On January 27th, peacebuilders from the ALLMEP network addressed the UK Foreign Affairs Committee, highlighting the crucial role of civil society in post-ceasefire peace efforts. Their testimony underscored urgent demands for UK and global support to ensure a just and lasting resolution in the region.

The leaders of several of ALLMEP’s member organizations, including Robi Damelin and Bassam Aramin (Parents Circle Families Forum), Rula Daood and Alon-Lee Green (Standing Together), Shahira Shalaby and Amnon Be’eri Sulitzeanu (The Abraham Initiatives), as well as John Lyndon, ALLMEP’s Executive Director delivered powerful testimonies on the need for the UK government to leverage its diplomatic influence to push for greater support for peacebuilding in the region, emphasizing the central role of civil society and grassroots organizations in bridging the divide between communities, addressing the psychological scars left by the conflict, and generating the political will for a solution which guarantees freedom, security and independence for both Israelis and Palestinians:

“The real solution is to have a real Israeli-Palestinian peace: a peace that will give the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza the ability to have their own independence, not to have military occupation in their lands; rebuild the lives of the people in Gaza, in the south of Israel and in Israel; and continue from there to an understanding that, for both of us to have real security, we must have peace. For people in Israel to feel safe, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank need their own freedom and independence; for Palestinians to have their own freedom and independence, Israelis must have their own security. That will come only with the achievement of real diplomatic agreements and real Israeli-Palestinian peace.” – Rula Daood

Speakers made reference to the importance of addressing the fundamental issues in order to secure peace in the short term, such as the release of hostages, the end of military occupation, and the recognition of an independent Palestinian state. Long-term solutions to the conflict can only be achieved through the mutual acknowledgement of the pain and trauma suffered by both communities, and the recognition that the future of Israelis and Palestinians are inextricably linked.

“Our mission is to understand that they do not have the same narrative, but they have the same place to live in. They live in the same society and with this mission—that is what we call it—we are trying to build shared and common interests. Because at the end of the day, if we want to live in the same place, we have the same needs—we want a safe life: to live with our neighbours in a safe place, to go to work and to send our kids to school and higher education. That is how we try to convince people that it is worth it, that we will win—it is a win-win situation for both societies.” – Shahira Shalaby

Drawing parallels to the Northern Irish peace process, and the fundamental role that civil society played in bridging sectarian divides, fostering a political will for peace and generating hope of a future of mutual coexistence between the two communities. John Lyndon highlighted the fact that in Northern Ireland, $44 per person was invested in civil society peacebuilding annually, compared to just $2 in Israel-Palestine. He urged for parliament’s support for the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, modelled on the International Fund for Ireland, as a means of developing “the ideas, the leaders and then the popular consent” to achieve real conflict resolution:

In Northern Ireland, from the mid-1980s we saw a radically scaled civil society strategy that was taking place during a period of diplomatic inertia. In the mid-1980s, most academics actually thought of Northern Ireland as being less resolvable than Israel-Palestine. The International Fund for Ireland was created in 1986, and it went on to directly invest and leverage over $2.4 billion towards civil society peacebuilding. That resulted in around $44 per person per year, for 20 years, to make participation in these programmes a rite of passage for many people in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.” – John Lyndon

This comes a month after Prime Minister Keir Starmer endorsed the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, and has pledged that the UK’s Foreign Secretary will hold an inaugural event in London.

One of the recurring talking points of the discussion was the need for the international community to leverage its diplomatic influence to support peacebuilding efforts in order to disrupt the ongoing cycle of violence in the region.

“I think the whole world has (…) to start investing in peace. It’s the first time that Palestine has been on the map for so many years. Can you imagine if all these wonderful kids who are demonstrating would understand and would start to support the organizations on the ground that are working to end this conflict? It doesn’t have to be The Parent Circle. It can be Alon’s Movement. It can be Combatants for Peace, or Women Wage Peace, or Breaking The Silence. How powerful that would be if a student would suddenly start to support that morally, that would make the difference in our lives, and that’s what we need.”- Robi Damelin

Ultimately, the main takeaway from the meeting was that peace cannot be achieved until there is mutual respect and empathy of both sides for one another, until there is hope of a future of coexistence for both communities, founded on principles of freedom, justice, security and mutual respect, and until the population is overwhelmingly committed to ending the cycle of violence in favour of a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict.

In the absence of political leadership on both sides, the work of building support for peace is being done on the ground by ALLMEP’s member organizations. As Rula Daood put it: “The victory we want speaks about a life of safety for both of us. (…) At the grassroots level (…) we understand that the most essential thing is that the people in this land fight for these principles. If we are not convinced as people that the only way we will have a different future is by stopping these endless wars and reaching a real Israeli-Palestinian peace, nobody is going to come from outside and help us. Our main work, for the last 15 months, has been building that political power within our society.”

The meeting was chaired by MP Emily Thornberry and attended by MPs Alex Ballinger; Aphra Brandreth; Phil Brickell; Dan Carden; Uma Kumaran; Blair McDougall; Abtisam Mohamed; Edward Morello; and Sir John Whittingdale.

You can watch a recording and read the transcript of the discussion here.

Written evidence by ALLMEP was also published by the Foreign Affairs Committee, which you can read here.